338 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



neutralized by its being converted into snow in tbe region of tlic higher moun- 

 tains and glaciers. The usual supply from this latter source is greatly dimi- 

 nished at such times, and though the small streams are swollen, the great 

 torrents that issue from the glaciers are reduced to less than half their usual 

 volume. But the case is very different when rain several degrees above the 

 freezing point falls upon the great fields of ice and neve. The whole of it 

 goes to swell the glacier-streams, and, moreover, the entire of its surplus heat 

 is consumed in melting the ice and snow with which it comes in contact. 

 After endeavouring to estimate the prodigious amount of water that, under 

 such circumstances, must be carried down within a few hours into the principal 

 valleys, I was not at all surprized when, a few days later, in ascending from 

 Sallenches to Chamouni, I found bridge after bridge swept away — some of 

 them seventy or eighty feet above the usual level of the water — and masses of 

 stone and rubbish brought down, sufiicient in one instance to bury a house and 

 mill so completely, that only a small portion of the latter, and the roof of the 

 building, remained projecting from the surface." 



Chapter eleven, by J. P. Hardy, although not one of the most scientific, is 

 nevertheless one of the most delightful, for its easy flowing style, in the whole 

 book ; and Mr. Bunbury's visit to the Col de la Jungfrau, affords an example 

 of what can be seen by those who have either not the " head" and daring, or 

 are too indolent and un-enterprismg to attack the higher and more formidable 

 peaks. 



In the note appended to this chapter, the editor's suggestion that the plants 

 which we find at great heights on small oases in the ice-region are the remains 

 of a more abundant vegetation, wliich has dwindled to its present trifling pro- 

 portions owing to the extension of the glaciers, is a novel and perhaps a 

 valuable one. 



Refreshing, indeed, at the end of the book comes Professor Ramsey's con- 

 tribution to the "Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers." 



There is an honest English bluntness of expression in his sentences which 

 causes their truthfulness to fall with force upon the apprehension. All that 

 we have previously read in the book amounts to little more than a modernized 

 version of enterprizing ascents, by which the accomplishments of bag-wigged 

 De Sausure and his attendants, in wading through snow-fields, or scrambEng 

 over precipitous mountain-slopes and crags, have been excelled and exceeded. 

 Professor Ramsay takes the mind back to times remote, when the lords of 

 creation were the great carnivora that preyed on the gigantic mammoths and 

 herbivora who were then the chief inhabitants of the earth. He talks to us 

 about the old glaciers of Switzerland and of North Wales. He makes us 

 think about the age of the great frozen ice-ma,sses by that one still sliding 

 down the mountain sides of Switzerland ; and he shows us the great moraine- 

 heaps of rocks and boulders still encuml)ering the mountain-vaUeys of Wales. 

 He produces evidences in the marks on the precipitous cliffs of the Alps of the 

 ancient greater depth and wider extent of the still veritable glaciers ; and he 

 shows us in the mountainous regions of Wales, the roches moutonnees, the 

 striations of the rocks, and the heaps of debris of British glaciers long since 

 melted away. 



There are stiH those who would speak of geology in disparaging terms ; but 

 the interest and point of this book is certainly concentered in this geological 

 history of those mighty ice-mountams. Nor are these mere speculations ; they 

 are, indeed, true inferences, substantially built upon accredited facts. 



The first part of his article opens boldly and to the point at once. " Every- 

 one," says he, " familiar with the Alps is aware of fluctuation in the dimensions 

 of the glaciers. It is recorded in the pages of Eorbes, that smce the year 1767, 

 the glacier of La Brenva rose three hundi'ed feet above its present' level, and 



